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Full disclosure, I’ve been putting players with beards on the Yankees in “MLB: The Show” for years now. Plus: Ken on Anthony Rizzo’s desire to keep playing, two aces I’m excited to see in 2025 and just when you thought baseball’s TV landscape was settled … it is not. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
Big Deals: Yankees change facial hair policy
Yes, this is silly. Yes, it is also our lead story today, precisely because the whole thing is just so ridiculous. Nearly 50 years after then-owner George Steinbrenner laid down the law — no long hair, no facial hair on the Yankees — the team announced Friday it will now allow “well-groomed” beards.
As for the reasoning, you might think the answer is “because it was kind of ridiculous in the first place,” but no — there’s a more practical reason: Owner Hal Steinbrenner mentioned the change is about roster construction, saying he doesn’t want the Yankees to miss out on any players for whom their beard is a big part of their identity.
Who, you might ask, would care that much? Their new closer, for one. Devin Williams was so annoyed by having to shave his beard that he requested a meeting with team ownership. Asked if the policy would be a factor when he hit free agency, he said, “It’s something that I would consider, for sure.”
How big a deal is this? Brendan Kuty even has a story about how it will impact the team barber. Tyler Kepner has another writeup here about the end of a tradition, and the ones that will remain in place — but there’s one more that is going away: Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” won’t play after losses (it will still be played after wins).
More Yankees: In actual baseball news, manager Aaron Boone — perhaps helped by the support of Aaron Judge — has signed an extension through 2027. And Kuty has the story from the early workouts, where Yankees players are still angry about losing the World Series last year.
Ken’s Notebook: Is this it for Rizzo?
From my latest story with Brendan Kuty:
Anthony Rizzo is only 35. But with spring training games underway, he continues to linger on the free-agent market. Rizzo wants to play. He’s healthy enough to play. Yet he knows the end of his career might be near.
“I’ve definitely thought about it. I think I have a lot to give to the game still,” the three-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner at first base said Friday. “But at the same time, if teams are not going to want to pay a few million dollars for veterans, I’ve seen it the last 10 years of my career. It’s what happens to the older guys. They kind of get squeezed. You’ve seen it happen more and more. I’m not naive to it. It could be it.”
Rizzo, a 14-year veteran, became a free agent when the Yankees declined his $17 million option, giving him a $6 million buyout that increased his career earnings to $127.6 million. The Yankees replaced him by awarding a one-year, $12.5 million free-agent contract to an even older first baseman, 37-year-old Paul Goldschmidt.
Rizzo, after two injury-marred seasons, understands why his market is less than robust. But he said he would not sign a deal that damages the future earning potential of players behind him.
“I’m surprised, but not like crazy surprised just because I’m a realist in the game and you’re getting older,” Rizzo said. “The fact that teams want you to play for basically league minimum ($760,000), I’m like, you guys are crazy. You’re almost trying to ruin the market for the next guy.”
Rizzo’s injuries the past two seasons resulted from incidents largely out of his control. He suffered a concussion stemming from a collision at first base, a fractured right forearm resulting from another collision while running out a ball and two broken knuckles in his right hand after he was hit by a pitch.
The last of those injuries occurred on Sept. 28. Rizzo missed the Division Series but returned from the ALCS. He said he received multiple numbing injections in multiple areas of his hand before and during postseason games. But the hand returned to full strength after the season ended, and Rizzo went through his normal offseason training regimen.
More here.
Sam Navarro, Brett Davis / USA Today Sports
‘Tis the Season: NL East aces return
This happens to me twice a year: Christmas and spring training. The calendar will sneak up on me, and I’m just not feeling the seasonal spirit until — BAM — something cracks through my exterior, and I’m ready to get festive.
This year’s spring training breakthrough came when I saw headlines about two NL East pitchers I missed watching in 2024: Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins and Spencer Strider of the Braves.
- Alcantara, the 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner, hit 99 mph in his return to the mound. He underwent Tommy John surgery late in 2023 and missed the entire season. Will he be the difference between a good Marlins team and a bad one? Nah. But add him to a rotation that features youngsters Ryan Weathers, Max Meyer and (around midseason) Eury Pérez, and Miami should be imminently more watchable this year.
- Meanwhile, Spencer Strider (2022 Rookie of the Year runner-up and fourth-place finisher in the 2023 Cy Young vote) was already one of the league’s best strikeout pitchers before adding a curveball to his repertoire last spring. Alas, nine innings into his season, he had another elbow injury, requiring internal brace surgery. He’s throwing off a mound and could return by late April, when he’ll join reigning NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale.
More returning pitchers: Matt Gelb has the inside story on Andrew Painter’s two years away from action with the Phillies. And don’t forget the Dodgers, who are bringing back Shohei Ohtani, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May to their stacked rotation.
Messes: MLB, ESPN on the outs
Just when we got one TV rights conversation behind us with the FanDuel (née Bally) Sports contracts all sorted for local broadcasts … well, here comes another bit of upheaval.
2025 will be the last year we see MLB on ESPN for the foreseeable future. Both sides have agreed to opt out of the rest of a deal that would have run through 2028.
So why did the split happen? From the story:
“Manfred wrote (in a memo) the league has ‘not been pleased with the minimal coverage that MLB has received on ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage.’”
Further down in the story, Evan Drellich and Andrew Marchand report ESPN actually opted out first, prompting MLB to follow suit. The package was going to pay the league $550 million per year over the next three years. ESPN felt it was too high, and MLB said, in so many words, “You don’t talk about us enough anyway.”
Ever the diplomats, the parties both seemed to indicate that they might get back together later. As Marchand reports here, it’s messy. Again.
Handshakes and High Fives
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(Top photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
